ITEM:		DISCUSSION ITEM
3.	DISCUSS STATUS OF RYAN RANCH UNIT OF CALIFORNIA AMERICAN WATER AND USE OF EMERGENCY INTERTIE BETWEEN THE BISHOP AND RYAN RANCH UNITS
Meeting Date:			March 28, 2019	Budgeted:	N/A
From:			Dave Stoldt,	Program/	N/A
			General Manager	Line Item No.:
Prepared By:			Stephanie Locke	Cost Estimate:	N/A
General Counsel Approval: N/A
Committee Recommendation: N/A
CEQA Compliance: N/A

SUMMARY: California American Water (“Cal-Am”) has been relying on the emergency intertie to the Bishop Unit (also a Cal-Am system) to supply water to Ryan Ranch since February 2018. MPWMD has encouraged Cal-Am to amend its Water Distribution System (“WDS”) permits to add Bishop as a Source of Supply for Ryan Ranch. However, before Cal-Am amends its permits, it is undertaking a rehabilitation of its Ryan Ranch Wells to try to bring production back to capacity. Cal-Am will present an update on these efforts to the Committee.

BACKGROUND: In November 1989, the District approved the annexation of the Ryan Ranch WDS into the Cal-Am Service Area, to be operated as a separate unit of the Cal-Am system. The Production Limit was set at 175 Acre-Feet Annually (“AFA”) based on production from five operating Wells. The permit also allowed an emergency intertie between the California American Water Main System and the Ryan Ranch Unit.

By Fall 2008, there had been repeated use of the emergency intertie and only two Wells were in service with a combined capacity of 101 gallons per minute (“gpm”), equivalent to 72 AFA. In September 2008, the District’s General Manager formally advised Cal-Am that the Ryan Ranch water supplies were insufficient, which triggered a series of MPWMD public hearings. These efforts culminated in June 15, 2009, Board action that adopted Findings, Conclusions and Decision of the Board, Hearing on Insufficient Physical Supplies in Accord with District Rule 40-B and reduced the production limit to 72 AFA. Because the 2007 production was 82 AFA, a moratorium on new Connections was imposed. The MPWMD Board directed that no Water Permit applications for Intensifications in Use be received until CAW “develops additional Well capacity to sustain a higher System Capacity and has its System Capacity modified” in a future public hearing. A June 12, 2009, pre-application for the proposed merger of the Ryan Ranch and Bishop Units was later withdrawn after the District provided guidance on required information and action.

CAW has funded hydrogeologic studies and test Well explorations in Ryan Ranch, but no new supplies have been developed to date. The moratorium persists with the exception that certain facilities have been built using water right transfers from private parties in the Seaside Basin, as approved by the Seaside Basin Watermaster and MPWMD (e.g., Montage’s recently built Ryan Ranch building). For reference, total Ryan Ranch water production (Ryan Ranch Wells plus emergency intertie) for the five-year period WY 2014-2018 averaged 57.034 AF.

In June 2015, the District approved WDS Permit #M15-03-L3 for an emergency intertie pipeline from the Bishop Unit to serve the Ryan Ranch Unit due to a decade of use of the emergency intertie from the Main Cal-Am System. Water from the Bishop Unit for emergency supply to Ryan Ranch was viewed as preferable to the Main Cal-Am System given the SWRCB Cease and Desist Order (“CDO”). The Permit #M15-03-L3 Conditions of Approval prohibited use of the main CAW system for emergency use unless written permission was obtained from MPWMD.

Since 2015, the Ryan Ranch Unit has not been able to sustainably supply its service area, and the emergency supply from Bishop was used each year. Since March 2018, the Bishop Wells have been the sole source of supply for the Ryan Ranch area, reflecting a failure of the Ryan Ranch Unit WDS. Condition #13 of Permit #M15-03-L3, requires Board review if the intertie is used more than 60 days, however the General Manager has directed that Board review be postponed for 60 days to allow the refurbished Well(s) to be tested for capacity.

RECOMMENDATION: The Committee should receive a report on the Ryan Ranch Wells from Cal-Am. No further action is recommended at this time.

RYAN RANCH

1989

· CAW RR 1989 Connection Limit: 190 Production Limit: 175

· Approval of CAW annexation included previous conditions, including five production Wells and the system operator agree to maintain a leak detection and correction system to ensure that unaccounted-for-water use in the system is limited to five percent of annual production, and implement a comprehensive water production, deliver, and hydrologic monitoring program.

· 30 lots

· Five wells: 20-100 gpm; 300 gpm treatment plant for iron and manganese treatment;

· Previous approval of 100.5 AFA or 62 gpm with peak of 86 gpm; designed to deliver 250 gpm with a filter capacity of 300 gpm and storage of 0.5 mg

· CAW asked to have the connection raised to 200 connections

2009

· Ryan Ranch 2009 Connection Limit: 190 Production Limit: 72 AF

· Added arsenic plant

· Added aeration and storage to rid of problem.

2019

· Well 7 was only producer for over 4 years

· Well 11 hasn’t produced since it did 1 AF in WY14

· Intermittent pumping noted.

a. Was that because well could not produce?

b. What is the status of the treatment facility?

c. Are the production numbers from the well head or from the treatment plant?

· Must know combined capacity of rehabilitated well(s).

a. If 11 has been off line since WY 13, will need current pumping capacity.

b. Is Well 11 going to be refurbished and restarted?

c. Why was it shut off in WY 2014 and not used again?

d. Can the well produce enough to run the treatment?

· Need to know which Well and daily production volumes and instantaneous pumping rate of the Well, by well

a. How a well is performing, draw down, etc.

· TREATMENT PLANT:

· Unsaid reason is that the treatment plant does not function properly.

a. Lose water to treatment – May be large amount.

b. Are “Production numbers are out of treatment plant, not out of well heads, right?”

c. Produced water

d. Raw water

e. Pre and post treatment plant efficiencies

f. Will the rehabbed well(s) produce enough to run the treatment plant? Will the rehab help former problems?

· Emergency?

a. Report within 6 days.

b. Report on a monthly basis of production on a daily time-step for each well.

· Trends in groundwater levels for Bishop?

a. On chart (Jon’s), you can see intertie opening, and aggregate of RR is almost the same with Bishop, as Bishop was on its own several years ago.

b. Conservation has mitigated damage. Extra savings in pumping from Conservation.

c. Groundwater levels are dropping at 1-1 ½

BISHOP

· WY 18 387 Connections

· Produced 166.22 AF, transferred 39.22 to RR

· Consumption at Bishop has dropped significantly from 157 AF in WY14 to 108 AF in WY18. Why? Construction activity? Golf course well redrill?

· Must know combined capacity of rehabilitated well(s).

a. If 11 has been off line since WY 13, need current pumping capacity.

b. Is Well 11 going to be refurbished and restarted?

c. Why was it shut off in WY 2014 and not used again?

· SUSTAINED YIELD OF WELL - “Sustained Yield of Well” means the continuous production capacity of a Well as determined from a Pumping Test.

· To assess production limit: Which Well and daily production volumes and instantaneous pumping rate of the Well, by well,

· How a well is performing, draw down, etc.

· Unsaid reason is that the treatment plant does not function properly. (break downs)

a. Lose water to treatment

b. Pre and post treatment plant efficiencies

c. Produced water

d. Raw water

e. “Production numbers are out of treatment plant, not out of well heads, right?”

· Emergency?

a. Report within 6 days.

b. Report on a monthly basis of production on a daily time-step for each well.

· Trends in groundwater levels for Bishop?

a. On chart (Jon’s), you can see intertie opening, and aggregate of RR is almost the same with Bishop, as Bishop was on its own several years ago.

b. Conservation has mitigated damage. Extra savings in pumping from Conservation.

c. Groundwater levels are dropping at 1-1 ½

· Drinking Water Protection Services (DWPS) regulates domestic water systems that serve 2-199 connections or systems that serve at least 25 people at least 60 days a year. – Roger Van Horn (Drinking water program)

a. Which person regulates the Ryan Ranch System

b. Quality problem?

c. Secondary Title 22 requirements problem?

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